Cowboy Crooner
Sirs:
ARTICLE "SHOWMAN AND SCHOLAR IN IDAHO" [TIME, AUG. 10] CONTAINS UNTRUE STATEMENT TO THE EXTENT OF BEING LIBELOUS. I HAVE NEVER CALLED OUR PRESIDENT A TOOL OF THE BANKERS NOR DEFAMED HIM IN ANY WAY. I HAVE NEVER SAID I MADE MONEY CAMPAIGNING. . . . THERE ARE FOUR MEN OPPOSING ME, AND THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT ARTICLE WILl RECEIVE FEWEST VOTES. LETTER FOLLOWS ENUMERATING FALSE STATEMENTS. I DEMAND APOLOGY OR WILL TAKE ACTION AGAINST YOUR MAGAZINE.
GLENN TAYLOR
Pocatello, Idaho
> No one but TIME was responsible for its story on "Cowboy" Taylor, ex-isolationist and crooner who, as TIME predicted, won Idaho's Democratic Senatorial nomination. In the absence of further communication from him, TIME, having rechecked its assertions, sticks by what it said.
In November he will meet Senator John Thomas, whose G.O.P. constituents gave him almost twice as many votes in Idaho's recent primary as Nominee Taylor polled.--ED.
2nd Front Page
Sirs:
SINCE SEPT. 3, 1939 TIME HAS BEEN THE DOMINION OF CANADA'S 2ND FRONT PAGE. LAST NIGHT THE D.O.C.'S AIR WAVES WERE LAVISH BUT SINCERE IN THEIR PRAISE OF TIME'S [AUG. 10] CLASSIC WORD PICTURE ON LIEUT. GENERAL ANDREW G. MCNAUGHTON OF THE CANADIANS. I BELIEVE, AND THERE ARE THOUSANDS LIKE ME, THAT IF CANADA'S SCIENTIST IN KHAKI WERE GIVEN HALF THE FIGHTING CHANCE HE AND HIS CANADIANS DESERVE HIS BERLIN-POINTED DAGGER WOULD BE CLOSE ENOUGH TO STRIKE HARA-KIRI AT THE BELLY BUTTONS OF HITLER'S BARBARIANS. . . . I BELIEVE THAT FOR A LONG TIME TO COME YOUR CANADIAN READERS WILL REMEMBER TIME'S CLEAR, CONCISE AND COMPLETE COMMENTS ON CANADA'S WAR EFFORTS . . . AND THAT TODAY'S ISSUE HAS DONE MUCH TO BUCK UP THE DROOPING MORALE ON THE D.O.C. HOME FRONT. THE D.O.C. IS INDEED MIGHTY PLEASED WITH TIME AND PROUD OF TIME'S ALL-OUT AID AND UNSELFISH EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY.
SERGEANT MORRIS GOODMAN
Montreal
Fighting Mad
Sirs:
I have just finished reading TIME [Aug. 3] and, believe me, I am sick at heart--not particularly because of the facts printed therein, which I know to be true, but rather because these facts have been pyramiding for so long that at last I am not only sick, I am fighting mad.
What in hell has happened to the real Americans of this country? Have we all lost our honesty, our honor, all those qualities that men like Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and others loved and fought for? We are supposed to be fighting another war for Democracy, but do we have a Democracy for which to fight? It makes one stop in bewildering wonderment when one reads, week in and week out, of the incredible happenings in Washington.
It must make Hitler as happy as it makes me despondent to know that our key Administration officials are more concerned about perpetuating their own power and political spheres than they are about winning the war. It must make him feel very good to know that . . . coordination is lacking between different branches of our armed forces. . . .
It is possible that we will win the war in spite of all this and yet lose America, the America that I grew to love as a boy and still love as a man today, the America whose traditions and standards have been the envy of the world. . . .
HERBERT J. WAUGH
Juneau, Alaska
> Let Reader Waugh not despair--but keep on being fighting mad.--ED.
Battle of Washington
Sirs:
While you (very properly) castigate and laugh at our rabble-rousing, gallus-snappin', education-proof, nigger-baitin' . . . Gene Talmadge, thank you for not letting the nation forget that Georgia has given to the Senate one of its most distinguished statesmen, Walter George. Don't let them forget, please, that the President tried to "purge" Walter George. And failed. . . .
Together with Dr. Raymond Leslie Buell's address [TIME, Aug. 3], small against the background of X cards and pensions-for-Con-gress . . . still hearten those of us who see that we are steadily losing the Battle of Washington. . . .
ELMER RANSOM
Augusta, Ga.
Say The Word
Sirs:
It is entirely possible that we the people are losing "The Battle on the Home Front." . . . Not one single day passes when one or more radio commentator or editorial writer doesn't scream that the war can be lost, everyone must learn to make sacrifices heretofore unheard of. ... This is all very true, but we're all worn out from nodding our heads in full agreement. . . .
Like many other people who feel as I do ... we are saving our tin cans, our collapsible metal tubes, our rubber, our waste paper, our scrap metal. . . . We're doing easily with less sugar than our ration card will buy. . . . We're not hoarding anything. . . .
Still, none of the things I am doing represents a real sacrifice. At most they seem to be mere inconveniences. . . . Making sacrifices isn't easy unless you know what you're doing. . . .
We the people will gladly make sacrifices, if we have any vague idea of what is expected of us. ... If [the Government] wants my car, wants to put soldiers in our spare bedroom . . . then just say the word. ... If my services are needed in the shipyards, on the assembly line, then I say, swell. Give us a program, and we'll live up to it. We'll go through with it without a whimper. But until that time comes, under unified direction, I wish they'd quit yelling at us. We're all worn out, and we haven't done a thing.
WALLACE D. WARREN
Reno, Nev.
> TIME agrees that the people could stand less yelling-at, has tried to keep its own yells down to minimum.--ED.
Alabama Scrap
Sirs:
In TIME [July 13] in an article on scrap rubber collections, the statement was made: "States that should have given the most gave the least: New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Alabama, the District of Columbia." The facts of the matter are that Alabama's collection during the June 15~July 10 drive totaled some 18,098,811 lb.--a per capita average of 6.39 lb. As in many other States, county salvage committee reports were slow in coming in, but the results were there. Your article, I believe, did an injustice to Alabama, however unintentional. In fairness, allow me to suggest that you publish the enclosed fair statement of the facts. . . .
GOVERNOR FRANK M. DIXON
Montgomery, Ala.
> Week after TIME'S story the Petroleum Industry War Council's report to the President gave Alabama a 10,560,000-lb. collection--a per capita average of 3.73 lb. Accepting Governor Dixon's much higher figure, which makes his State about average, TIME gladly credits Alabama with a job well done.--ED.
Cartography Advanced
Sirs:
Map reading is ordinarily tedious, but your R. M. Chapin has the way of making a map come to life. . . . Our schools and universities could and should utilize this new, effective means of diagraming not merely the land, but its peoples' relation to it and to each other. TIME and Mr. Chapin have promulgated a definite advancement in the art of cartography.
CLARKE SMYTH
San Francisco, Calif.
16EE
Sirs:
In TIME [Aug. 10] ... you state that Winston Churchill's daughter was spanked by Bill ("Feets") Adams, an American soldier who wears size 14EE shoes, the largest shoes issued by the United States Army. I beg to differ. . . . My brother, Pvt. Archie Rabhan, one of your subscribers, who is stationed in New York City, was issued size 16EE shoes. . . .
MARTIN M. RABHAN
Savannah, Ga.
> To the awesome extremities of Reader ("Feets") Rabhan, TIME bows.--ED.
Permanent Installation?
Sirs:
Please extend to B. Ruml for his proposed solution to the income tax payment problem [TIME, Aug. 10] the heartfelt congratulations of myself and, I am quite sure, thousands of others like me who have been lying awake nights trying to figure out how to budget a 1942 income tax, a 1943 withholding tax, a 15% rise in the cost of living, and an earnest desire to purchase war bonds, into 1943's anticipated income.
If this is a sample of the sort of answers to complicated problems this fellow Rural has up his sleeve, why wouldn't it be a good idea to install him permanently in Washington? Perhaps the rubber, gasoline and inflation problems have simple answers too, if the right man starts after them. . . .
D. F. SOUTHGATE
Phelps, N.Y.
To Save India
Sirs :
. . . The British decision to outlaw the Indian National Congress [TIME, Aug. 17] at a time when no overt act of disobedience had taken place ... is regarded by many as justified. . . . Yet even those who accept this view know in their hearts that there could be no graver disaster to the cause of freedom than what has happened in India and no folly more wicked than the folly which seeks to save India from her enemies through a policy of terrorization endorsed by her friends. . .
An India ruled by force and torn by rebellion is an India mortgaged to the common enemy. . . . Such an India will never be saved by British or American troops. To lose India tomorrow by American default today will be to doom China to subjugation, to deliver all the Middle East to the Axis and to force the armies of Russia behind the Urals, regardless of any second front. The sequel for Britain can only be invasion. The sequel for America can only be an endless and all but hopeless war against opponents who will rule the world. . . .
Every Indian who languishes in a British jail, who screams under a British lash, who dies before a British gun, will become a symbol of despair for millions of the colored peoples of the earth. These silent and waiting multitudes will conclude, wrongly no doubt but nonetheless irrevocably, that Western white men offer them only fair words and foul deeds, that the darker peoples have no stake in a war between rival oppressors, and that Axis arrogance may be more tolerable than democratic hypocrisy. . . .
This is America's opportunity, for only America enjoys the confidence of all. Let Americans everywhere ask their President to join with the leaders of China and Russia in proposing arbitration of the Indian conflict.
Let the proposal expressly contemplate the preparation by a United Nations tribunal of a plan for the establishment, within the next three months, of a provisional government of an independent India, linked in war and peace alike to the British Commonwealth and the United Nations as a free and equal partner. . . .
To shirk this opportunity is to invite defeat. To seize upon it will be to pave the way to victory by showing all mankind that the United Nations can translate freedom into creative action and can plan now, by democratic means, for the free world of the future.
India has become the acid test of our fitness to survive. To fail here will be to fail everywhere. To succeed here will be to prove the truth of the President's words: #We of the United Nations have the power and the men and the will at last to assure man's heritage." FREDERICK L. SCHUMAN
Woodrow Wilson Professor of Government
Williams College
Williamstown, Mass.
> TIME and all freedom-loving Americans hope that the U.S. Government is making every effort to reach a workable solution of this vital United Nations problem.--ED.
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